Category: Live Reviews
Tags: Adrian Belew, Become Lights, Eat Lights, King Crimson, Still Corners, The Raveonettes, The See See

I don’t know how to or where to put it, but this is just it – the last week was London time for me, and apart from the usual exploring (walking and walking) we visited two gigs (part of exploring) – one was featuring Adrian Belew in Islington Academy, the other one was more home-brewed three-in-one event with Eat Lights, Become Lights / Still Corners / The See See in Hoxton Bar & Kitchen. First, we got into these two gigs with no problem at all and finally maybe it’s a myth that all gigs in London get sold out in a matter of days (should i stick in something about them maybe being too “underground” and that being the reason for our having no problem at all?)

So…
Adrian Belew was really good. As you might know, he has been into King Crimson, the seminal prog-rock outfit, since their early 80′s albums (as far as I know), providing voice and guitar. We learned during the gig that it was actually the first time he actually appeared live in London solo (he threw in a pun that maybe in another 30 years he might do it again). His backing band was a girl in her twenties playing bass guitar and a guy in his late thirties playing drums, with himself on vocals and guitars. Those musicians were really good and tight, and Adrian himself was as full of good-heartedness as ever, enjoying every note he played and wily-nily watching the audience out of curiosity. They went out two times for the hearty encore and the whole thing lasted about two hours. Most of the things were from his last solo works, but they threw in about four King Crimson numbers too from the Belew period – I myself recognised “Three of a perfect pair” (being accustomed only to hooks and dancey stuff, myself) In general, everything was really nice, and full of good-naturedness, a kind of warm optimism, and optimism is something one expects from the likes of Adrian Belew.

The other gig (the Hoxton one – by the way, people tell that the Hoxton bar in Gazi district of Athens took its name and style from that same bar we went in London that is situated in Hoxton Square, Hackney, in London) was less top-notch of course – it was more kind of a local live event one might see in An Club, apart from the fact that it was in the legendary London. Eat Lights, Become Lights play a kind of majore and energizing post-rock with songs built on a kind of monotonous and persisting melody. I was fascinated by their name, but the music left me waiting for something at times more melancholic and nostalgic – which wasn’t the case. But that’s what they were, and my ok for it

Still Corners, the second band, were very much in the vein of The Raveonettes circa 2007 (“Lust, Lust, Lust”), in the course of reviving those end of the sixties pop-mixed-with-psychedelia bands. There was this girl with her retro attire and looks (being so shy and always looking downwards while saying thank you to the clapping public – you could never decide if she does it intentionally for the sake of the image or she’s really like that). There was this guy with big nerdy looking hard-framed glasses (see Pulp) playing (at times very animatedly) heavily feed backed guitar. Think about Raveonettes and maybe Saint Etienne or something like this. There were a couple of times where the tunes got really inspired, and maybe this is the band i liked most of the three playing – but in the end this is a matter of taste – they weren’t as trippy as the aforementioned (and much admired) Raveonettes 2007 stuff.

The See See (the third band, headliner stuff) play a kind of Rolling Stones/Oasis/Inspiral Carpets thing, with lots of power in the strings, but kind of basic melodies, throwing stale old jokes at the audience between the songs (having drunk too much already, probably) – they had this classy i-don’t-give-a-f*** image of burned rock-stars, without being rock-stars (yet) – you can find all three bands with their songs on youtube and myspace, so be free to check them out for yourself, as my opinion is not that objective, probably. But the event, as an event, was really nice (i adore small lives). That sums it all up, I guess.

hello-earth

All photos taken by Hello-Earth

About the Author: CnB